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Griffith
Hawk of Darkness Hawk of Light White Hawk The Absolute |manga debut= As Femto: Guardians of Desire (5) Golden Age 4 |anime debut= Band of the Hawk As Femto: Time of Eternity |movies debut= Golden Age Arc I As Femto: Golden Age Arc III |japanese voice= Toshiyuki Morikawa (Anime) Takahiro Sakurai (Movies) |english voice= Kevin Collins |gender= Male |eyes= Blue; as Femto: Red (Movies) |hair= White; as Femto: None |blood type= |status= Alive |affiliation= Neo Band of the Hawk, Falconia and God Hand |previous affiliation= Band of the Hawk |occupation= Ruler of Falconia |previous occupation=Mercenary |relatives= Casca (abuse victim) Demon Child (host body) |image gallery= yes}} Griffith is the main antagonist of Berserk. He is the founder and leader of the mercenary groups Band of the Hawk and Neo Band of the Hawk, the ruler of the city of Falconia and the fifth member of the God Hand; known as Femto. Appearance Griffith is of average height and an athletic muscular build, with a somewhat pale skin tone. He has long curly white hair (often seen straight in the anime) and blue eyes. He is noted to be a very beautiful man, and has feminine features that many have commented surpass that of women's, while some can hardly tell he is a man. After regaining physical form, Griffith appears the same though his eyes now have slit pupils to reflect his true nature as one of the God Hand. In battle, Griffith wears white armor with his iconic hawk-beak helmet. Femto In his Femto form, a reflection of his soul, Griffith wears a body tight black suit of armour with exposed scale-like muscles and cape-like wings on his back. His hawk-beaked helmet, now blacked and skeletal, is grafted onto his head with his eyes changed from blue to red. In the anime series, Griffith's form as Femto appears dark red. Personality Griffith has continually focused on his goal of achieving his dream of obtaining his own kingdom, willing to sacrifice anything and everything to achieve it. From birth he had always "known the way up", allowing him to command several soldiers with his charismatic ability. He strongly identifies with his dream, so much so that he built his entire identity around it. His egotism was exacerbated by his own charisma, and the fact that everybody he met was enthralled by him, either as a divine leader or a powerful enemy, made him isolate himself from others and from his own feelings. Griffith was so enthralled by his idealized personality that he could not cope with loss well. In fact, one of Griffith’s greatest burdens was the guilt inflicted on him by the comrades that died for him. In the early days of the Hawk, he encountered the corpse of a child soldier who had served him, and he was so deeply affected by it that he prostituted himself to a perverted Baron for quick funding in order to avoid risking further needless casualties in other battles. The experience deeply traumatized him, so he isolated himself from his comrades. Though he denied it, having never considered his allies as friends, he considered Guts to be his dear friend rather than a pawn in his goals. These feelings border on passion to the point that Griffith would lay his own life to protect Guts while entrusting him to be his assassin with the option to decline. But when Guts left the Hawks, deeply distressed by Guts's acting on his own dream, it broke Griffith as he fell into a depression and led to a downward spiral. After his transformation into Femto, Griffith completely discarded his moralities while now solely existing to fulfill his dream along with humanity's collective will. Griffith displayed great cruelty once becoming Femto, his first act after becoming an member of God Hand being to sexually violate Casca and mutate her and Guts unborn child with his seed as an act of revenge against Guts for leaving him. While now aloof and viewing humanity from a deterministic perspective with neither fear or bewilderment, Griffith's ability to empathy since his God Hand status is debatable; when he sees Guts on the hill of swords, he does so in order to determine whether or not anything will "sway his heart" something that he would not consider doing if he knew for sure that he no longer felt anything for Guts. During Guts' second battle with Zodd, Griffith, his heart racing, shields Casca from a cascade of boulders; he justifies the act by claiming it was the feelings of Guts' demon child infused into his body affecting him, though this could be interpreted as denial. Abilities Griffith's greatest strengths is his uncanny charisma to induce submission in others just by being around them. The sight of him and the sound of his voice are enough to bend anyone's will and turn them into loyal servants, ready to die at his command. After becoming Femto, Griffith becomes one of the strongest entities in the series with his charisma greatly intensified to the point that Ganishka above submitted to him. Upon his transcendence, Griffith learned he possessed the power to manipulate space and gravity to push an opponent back, create a black hole-like vacuum to crush multiple targets into oblivion, or redirect an opponent's attack to another target. While he originally could only manifest through rudimentary vessels or when summoned by one with Behelit, Griffith gained a full-time physical presence through using the Demon Child to hold his spiritual essence. Since his return, Griffith displays the ability to assume his Femto form and back at will. History As a child of humble-birth meant to someday rule a kingdom of his own, receiving a crimson behelit, Griffith created the Band of Hawks with a miner named Pippin, a former bandit named Corkus, a tumbler named Judeau, and a 12-year old Casca whom he saved from her would-be rapists. Griffith's big break first came when he and his group were brought in the service of Gennon, who offered extra pay for the youth to sleep with him. Golden Age Arc Two years later, Griffith encountered Guts and defeated him twice to win his servitude in among the Hawks alongside Rickert. Once the Band of Hawks defeated the Black Sheep Iron Spears Heavy Knights of Tudor, they are recruited by Midland for its war against Tuder. During one siege, Guts and Griffith encounter the demon known as Nosferatu Zodd the Immortal, who notices Griffith's behelit and cryptically warns Guts of its significance in his doom. In time, Griffith's gradually rise in status is ill received by the noblemen with Julius sending an assassin. But the assassination attempt failed and Griffith retaliates by sending Guts to kill Julius and instructions to leave no witnesses in case he is seen. The fact that Guts was forced to murder Julius's son Adonis as a result, along with overhearing Griffith discussing his ideals with the Midland princess Charlotte, causes a rift between the two that forces Guts to leave become strong enough to be seen as Griffith's equal. But Griffith did not take Gut's departure well, going through a downward spiral that accumulated in him being imprisoned in the Tower of Rebirth after being caught sleeping with Charlotte in a lapse of judgment. Griffith's torturer threw his behelit into a near by drain that leads to a river. By the time Guts and the adult members of the Band of Hawks come to rescue him, Griffith has been rendered mute and crippled from a year of being tortured. When Griffith tries to end his life upon realizing that he can not longer fulfill his dream in his ruin state, finding the item at the time, a drop of his blood allowed his behelit to activate and triggers the Eclipse. Griffith, Guts, Casca, Pippin, Corkus, Judeau, and the gathered Apostles are transported to an Interstice where the God Head manifest to welcome Griffith. Griffith is given a choice to be reborn as the last of the God Hand while knowing his transition would mean his allies would be sacrificed to the Apostles, using his past for added enticing. Griffith accepts the offer for the sake of his dream and, as Pippin, Corkus, and Judeau are slaughtered, appears before the power behind the God Hand. Told everything he went through has been leading to this moment, Griffith accepts his fate to become a king as he begins to create his ideal spiritual body. By the time only a restrained Guts and an unconscious Casca are last ones alive, Griffith emerges from his metamorphosis as Femto and proceeds to sexually violate Casca while Guts watches while attempting to free himself at the cost of his arm and eye. Though the Skull Knight saves Guts and Casca from their fate, the damage from their hellish ordeal ran its course with Casca being reduced to a child-like state of mind while Griffith's act of rape mutated the unborn child she gained from her night with Guts into a deformed creature. Guts then swore revenge on Griffith, remarking that he would never forgive him for what he has done. Black Swordsman Arc Because of Griffith's status as one of the God Hand, he was no longer of the physical realm and originally could only temporarily manifest through mediums such as corpses or when a Behelit was activated. Guts did not know this fact as he spent two years hunting Apostles to find the God Hand. Eventually, after fatally wounding the Count, Guts would cross paths with Griffith when the Count summoned the God Hand to give him new life. After being summoned, Griffith easily defeated Guts since he has learned to master his gravity-manipulating powers along with his very presence causing Guts to lose a large amount of blood from his Brand of Sacrifice. Griffith points out to the Count that he only needs to sacrifice Theresia while warning him to choose before the Abyss claims him. But after the Count's soul is consumed by the Abyss, Griffith looks down at Guts before the swordsman, Puck and Theresia are returned to the physical world. Conviction Arc Soon after siring the Egg-Shaped Apostle to carry out a special task, the God Hand began to orchestrate a series of events from a plague to the Kushan invasion of the Midland by Ganishka while the maddened King of Midland spent his final hours having his army search for Griffith. The God Hand placed a dream inside everyone of the coming of what the Holy See Religious Order deemed their savior: The Hawk of Light. But what no one realized besides the Skull Knight and Nosferatu Zodd, (the latter summoned to the location by Griffith after recruiting him in a dream by cutting off his horn), was that the refugees were all being lead to the city of St. Albion to serve in a mass sacrifice known as the Incarnation Ceremony that would resurrect Griffith into the physical realm. Though Guts was told of the significance of the visions, he was more focused on protecting Casca despite the fact they both played a role in gathering the vast amount of restless spirits that consumed the living before converging towards the Egg-Shaped Apostle as he offered his life to complete the ritual. Prior to the conclusion, the Egg-Shaped Apostle swallowed the Demon Child while climbing up the crumbling Tower of Conviction to enact the Incarnation Ceremony. As the Egg-Shaped Apostle reached the top and summons the restless spirits of all who have died in St. Albion to him, the demon child's body fully developed into a human-like form before rapidly maturing into a vessel for Griffith to fully regain his physical presence. Griffith then emerges from the Egg Apostle's body, killing him as the tower is completely destroyed. Griffith would make his presence known at daybreak, naked while embracing the warmth of the sun as Guts and Casca see him to the former's shock and mixed feelings. When Silat and his forces were sent to capture him on orders from Ganishka, Griffith flies off on Zodd's back when he arrives. Falcon of the Millenium Empire Arc thumb|right Later explaining that he left St. Albion as he felt it was not an ideal place for a reunion for the surviving members of the Band of Hawks, Griffith meets Guts again on the Hill of Swords while meeting with Rickert to offer the boy in aiding him in his dream once more. While Griffith felt no remorse of seeing the grave markers from those he sacrificed, he realized the Demon Child's influence made him concerned for Casca's wellbeing during Guts's fight with Zodd as he orders the Apostle to cease as they leave to enact his destiny. As Guts begins his journey to Elfhelm with a fellowship, Griffith has begun to orchestrate becoming Midland's sole military leader through a new Band of the Hawk with Zodd and other numerous Apostles along with human members like Sonia and Mule Wolflame. After leading his army to force Ganishka and his forces to fall back to Windham, Griffith cements his right to lead by revealing his betrothal to Charlotte after rescuing her from Ganshika's custody while the Holy See's Pontiff confirms him the Hawk of Light and ordains the union. thumb|left When Ganshika transcended his existence as a Apostle by entering the Man-Made Behelit and offering his forces in exchange, Griffith has his forces fight off the emperor's familiars while he rides Zodd to the core of the giant where Ganshika's physical body is. As he draws near to Ganshika, Griffith assumes his Femto form as the Skull Knight attempts to strike him from behind with his Sword of Actuation. But Griffith reveals he was hoping for the Skull Knight's appearance as he uses his power to redirect the dimensional-ripping slash from his would-be assassin's sword at Ganshika's human face. This causes a chain reaction with Ganshika's god form that results in the World Transformation with the entire world now in a global Interstice with Astral creatures now fully manifested in the physical world. Griffith also used the event to create his city of Falconia, an utopian society that curb the Apostles' bloodlust with gladiatorial combat so they can serve as humanity's protectors from the monsters now lurking outside Falconia's walls. Fantasia Arc When learning that Rickert had come to Falconia, Griffith welcomes the youth when he comes to his palace and once more makes the offer. But Rickert, having now learned the truth of the Eclipse while conflicted by the good that his former leader have done since Falconia's creation, slapped Griffith for asking him again. While Rickert could not truly hate him, the youth tells Griffith that he is a follower of the man he once was and the original Band of the Hawk. Griffith stead his guards, allowing Rickert to leave the palace while reassuring those present that it was a simple rejection. But weeks later, when the youth resolved to leave Falconia, Rickert finds himself being targeted by Raksas and believes that Griffith send the Apostle to assassinate him out of retaliation. Trivia *Griffith is an Anglicized form of the Welsh name "Gruffudd". A variation of the name is "Griffin", playing in Griffith's avian theme. de:Griffith es:Griffith cs:Griffith Griffith Griffith Category:Nobles Category:Mercenaries Category:Swordsmen Griffith Category:Neo Band of the Hawk Category:Antagonists Category:God Hand Category:Featured Articles